a sequel to Miller Lite's bawdy, controversial "Catfight" commercial that was to air during the network's coverage of the NCAA's men's basketball championships April 5 and 7.

NCAA President Myles Brand said at a news conference this week in New Orleans, site of the Final Four, that while he didn't have an opinion on beer company sponsorship of collegiate athletics, he deemed one of Miller's ads a bit too racy.

'Some decorum'
"There has to be some sense of decorum in commercials," Mr. Brand said. He said the NCAA "exercised our option in the contract with CBS not to permit that."

But a spokesman for Miller Lite, a division of SABMiller's Miller Brewing Co., said the NCAA's move was a non-issue because the beer maker earlier this week had already decided to postpone all new "Catfight" commercials in the wake of the war. Instead, the brewer will run two other spots during the games.

CBS did not return calls, and the NCAA could not be reached late today to comment on Miller's statement that it was the one who decided to shelve the spots.

$6 billion deal
CBS is in the first year of its latest deal to carry the NCAA men's basketball tournament, an 11-year, $6 billion agreement. The network has carried the tournament for the past 22 years, but viewership has been down this year because of the war.

The Miller spokesman said the brewery originally planned to run two new "Catfight" sequels during CBS' coverage of tournament. One featured two manly but sensitive men hugging after a tiff, and the other was a female fantasy about a guy ending up in a mud pit with a much larger, burly man instead of a buxom babe.

The NCAA objected to the ad with the men in the mud pit, the Miller spokesman said.

The original "Catfight" ad debuted in January and featured two sexy women, tearing off each other's clothes while wrestling in wet concrete. An Internet version had one woman asking the other if she wanted to make out.